255 Nostrates juvet artifices, doceatque laborem ; Chromatice Nec qui chromatices nobis, hoc temtertia pars picturæ. pore, partes

Restituat, quales Zeuxis tractaverat olim,

Hujus quando magâ velut arte æquavit Apellem Pictorum Archigraphum, meruitque coloribus altam 260. Nominis æterni famam, toto orbe

sonantem.

Hæc quidem ut in tabulis fallax, sed

grata venustas, Et complementum graphidos (mirabile visu)

Pulchra vocabatur, sed subdola, lena sororis :

part of

of those ancients. Neither is there 256. any man who is able to restore * the chromatic part, or colouring, or to Colouring renew it to that point of excellency the third to which it had been carried by painting. Zeuxis; who by this part, which is so charming, so magical, and which so admirably deceives the sight, made himself equal to the great Apelles, that prince of painters; and deserved that height of reputation, which he still possesses in the world.

And as this part, which we may call the utmost perfection of painting, is a deceiving beauty, but withal soothing and pleasing; so she has been accused of procuring lovers for * her sister, and artfully engaging us

260.

this prostitution, these false colours, and this deceit, dishonoured paint- 265, ing, that, on the contrary, they have only served to set forth her praise, and to make her merit farther known; and therefore it will be profitable to us, to have a more clear understanding of what we call colouring.

*The light produces all kinds of colours, and the shadow gives us none. The more a body is nearer to the eyes, and the more directly it is opposed to them, the more it is enlightened: Because the light languishes and lessens, the farther it removes from its proper source.

The nearer the object is to the 270. eyes, and the more directly it is opposed to them, the better it is seen; because the sight is weakened by distance.

XXXI

duct of the

shadows

It is therefore necessary, "that The conthose parts of round bodies which are of seen directly opposite to the spectator, light and should have the light entire ;" and that the extremities turn, in losing themselves insensibly and confusedly, without precipitating the light all on the sudden into the shadow, or the 275 shadow into the light. But the passage of one into the other must be common and imperceptible, that is, by degrees of lights into shadows, and of shadows into lights. And it is in conformity to these principles, that you ought to treat a whole group of figures, though it be composed of several parts, in the same manner as

you would do a single head: "or if 280 the wideness of the space, or largeness of the composition, requires that you should have two groups or three, (which should be the most,) iet the lights and shadows be so discreetly managed, that light bodies may have a sufficient mass or breadth of shadow to sustain them, and that dark bodies may have a sudden light 285. behind to detach them from the ground.

"As in a convex mirror, the collected rays strike stronger and brighter in the middle than upon the natural object, and the vivacity of the colours is increased in the parts full in your sight; while the goings off are more and more broken and faint as they approach to the extremities, in the same manner bodies are 290 to be raised and rounded."

Thus the painter and the sculptor are to work with one and the same intention, and with one and the same conduct. For what the sculptor strikes off, and makes round with his tool, the painter performs with his pencil, casting behind that which he 295. makes less visible, by the dimunition and breaking of his colours: "That which is foremost and nearest to the eye, must be so distinctly expressed, as to be sharp, or almost cutting to the sight. Thus shall the colours be disposed upon a plane, which from a proper place and distance will seem 300. so natural and round, as to make the figures appear so many statues.

XXXII.

the Of dark

bodies on

"Solid bodies subject to touch, are not to be painted transpar-light ent; and even when such bodies are grounds. placed upon transparent grounds, as upon clouds, waters, air, and the like vacuities, they must be preserved opaque, that their solidity be not destroyed among those light, aerial, 305, transparent species; and must therefore be expressed sharper and rougher than what is next to them, more dis

†The French translator here, as well as Mr. Dryden, is unintelligible; which happened by their mistaking the meaning of the word opaca, which is not put for dark, but opaque in opposition to transparent; for a white garment may be opaque, &c.

tinct by a firm light and shadow, and with more solid and substantial colours; that, on the contrary, the 310. smoother and more transparent may be thrown off to a farther distance," XXXIII. We are never to admit two equal That there lights in the same picture, but the must not be two equal greater light must strike forcibly on lights in a the middle; and there extend its picture. greatest clearness on those places of the picture, where the principal fig-> ures of it are, and where the strength 315. of the action is performed; diminishing by degrees as it comes nearer and nearer to the borders: and after the same manner that the light of the sun languishes insensibly, in its spreading from the east, from whence it begins, towards the west, where it decays and vanishes; so the light of the picture being distributed over all the colours, will become less sensible 320. the farther it is removed from its original.

The experience of this is evident in those statues which we see set up in the midst of public places, whose upper parts are more enlightened than the lower; and therefore you are to imitate them in the distribution of your lights.

Avoid strong shadows on the middle of the limbs, lest the great quantity of black which composes those shadows should seem to enter into them, and to cut them: rather take 325. care to place those shadowings round about them, thereby to heighten the parts; and take such advantageous lights, that after great lights great shadows may succeed. And therefore Titian said, with reason, that he knew no better rule for the distribution of the lights and shadows, than his observations drawn from a * bunch of grapes.

XXXIV.

draws an object nearer, or carries it of white * Pure, or unmixed white, either 330. off to a farther distance; it draws it and black. nearer with black, and throws it backward without it. * But as for pure black, there is nothing which brings the object nearer to the sight.

The light being altered by some colour, never fails to communicate somewhat of that colour to the bodies on which it strikes; and the same

335. XXXV. Colorum reflectio.

XXXVI. Unio colorum.

Corpora juncta simul, circumfusosque colores Excipiunt, propriumque aliis radiosa reflectunt.

Pluribus in solidis liquida sub luce propinquis, Participes, mixtosque simul decet esse colores. Hanc Normam Veneti pictores ritè sequuti,

340. (Quæ fuit antiquis corruptio dicta colorum)

Cùm plures opere in magno posuêre figuras ;

Nè conjuncta simul variorum inimica colorum

Congeries formam implicitam, et concisa minutis

Membra daret pannis, totam unamquamque figuram 345. Affini, aut uno tantùm vestire colore, Sunt soliti; variando tonis tunicamque togamque Carbaseosque sinus, vel amicum in lumine et umbra Contiguis circum rebus sociando colorem.

XXXVII. Aer interpositus.

Qua minus est spacii aerii, aut quâ purior aer,

350. Cuncta magis distincta patent, speciesque reservant: Quâque magis densus nebulis, aut plurimus aer

XXXVIII. Distantiarum relatio.

Amplum inter fuerit spatium porrec-
tus, in auras
Confundet rerum species, et perdet
inanes.

Anteriora magis semper finita, re-
motis

355. Incertis dominentur et abscedentibus, idque

XXXIX. Corpora procul distantia.

XL. Contigna et dissita.

360.

More relativo, ut majura minoribus

extent.

Cuncta minuta procul massam densantur in unam;

Ut folia arboribus sylvarum, et in æquore fluctus.

Contigua inter se coeant, sed dissita distent, Distabuntque tamen grato, et discrimine parvo.

effect is performed by the medium of air, through which it passes.

XXXV.

The bodies which are close to- 335. gether receive from each other that The reflec colour which is opposite to them; tion of col

and reflect on each other that which is naturally and properly their own.

ours.

XXXVI.

It is also consonant to reason, that Union of the greatest part of those bodies colours. which are under a light, which is extended, and distributed equally through all, should participate of each other's colours. The Venetian school having a great regard for that maxim, (which the ancients called the breaking of colours,) in the quan- 340. tity of figures with which they fill their pictures, have always endeavoured the union of colours; for fear, that, being too different, they should come to encuinber the sight: "therefore they painted each figure with one 345. colour, or with colours of near affinity, though the habit were of different kinds, distinguishing the upper garment from the under, or from the loose and flowing mantle, by the tints, or degrees, harmonizing and uniting the colours, with whatever was next to them."

Of the inter

The less aerial space which there 350. is betwixt us and the object, and the XXXVII. more pure the air is, by so much the position of more the species are preserved and air. distinguished; and, on the contrary, the more space of air there is, and the less pure it is, so much the more the object is confused and embroiled. XXXVIII. Those objects which are placed The relation foremost to the view, ought always to be more finished than those which are cast behind; and ought to have dominion over those things which are confused and transient. * But let this be done relatively, viz. one thing 355. greater and stronger, casting the less behind, and rendering it less sensible by its opposition.

of distances.